Thursday, 4 January 2018

THE TITANS COVER COMPARISONS PART NINE - FANTASTIC FOUR #96...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

"Hell's bells! Is there no end to this cover comparisons series?" you may be asking. Well, to be honest, no - not quite yet. Isn't it fascinating though, to see these covers 'side-by-side' (you know what I mean) and see where they match and where they deviate. I think that in some cases, even if you'd once owned the US issues, you'd probably have just assumed that the 'new' covers were simply rearranged layouts of the originals, not completely redrawn versions. Unless you were a die-hard KIRBY fan, you'd really need to see them both at the same time to spot the differences between them - and that's the purpose of these palpitating posts. So here you are - FANTASTIC FOUR #96 and The TITANS #39 - have fun looking.

Happy new year! My landline/internet connection has been down since December 29th but it's fixed now, hooray!

The most striking thing about this cover is the little sticker saying '1/-5p' from the days when we were changing from Imperial to decimal currency (which I'm not quite old enough to remember). Not even the most extreme Brexiteer wants to return to the old Imperial coinage.

Happy New Year, CJ. I thought maybe you were ill in bed because you hadn't been around for a while. I don't think I could be labelled an extreme Brexiteer, but I'd be quite happy to see the return of the old coinage. Purely from a nostalgic point of view though.

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I'd have to check on that now that I think of it, TC, 'cos I'm not sure. I suspect you're right though. Having said that, Ivan Kragoff did refer to himself as The Red Ghost if I recall rightly, and you wouldn't expect a communist to do that either. I suppose anything goes in comics when it comes to villains' names.

Not a bad job by Larry on this one. On the original cover the buildings in the background were revised by Marie Severin. And I'm sure you know that Kirby did a re-make of his own for this cover Marvel's Greatest Comics # 77: https://www.comics.org/issue/32248/cover/4/

Took a look at that cover, Nick, but here's the thing. It looks like it's been 'flipped', and if you flip it back, it's very close to Jack's original - almost like a tracing. I think Jack would've completely redrawn it without sticking so closely to his original version, so is it possible that the inker of the MGC version traced it, and Jack's initials are on it merely as a 'courtesy', seeing as he drew the original on which the 2nd version is based? Speculation on my part of course, but other covers that Jack redrew for reprints didn't usually match the originals so closely. Or perhaps Jack himself traced the cover from the printed comic as they couldn't find a stat of the art in the Marvel offices or storeroom?

The redo is very close to the original, but there are enough subtle differences in a few figures and poses (sue, Johnny) that its not a complete tracing. Also, in the new version those are "Kirby buildings" in the background. I think your guess is right, Kid, Marvel probably didn't have a stat of the original and Kirby pretty much copied his original drawing.

STUDIO 77

About the artist:

From 1985 to 2000 A.D. (little joke there), I contributed to a variety of high profile comics and magazines for various companies.

For IPC/FLEETWAY/EGMONT, I freelanced as a lettering and logo artiston various weekly comics and monthly magazines, and also as a resize comic artistandspot illustratoron pocket books, summer specials and annuals.

ForMARVEL U.K., BLACK LIBRARY, REDAN and USBORNE BOOKS, I again freelanced as a lettering artist, also working as arestoration artistfor MARVEL U.S., restoring and re-creating certain pages of JACK KIRBY art for their MARVEL MASTERWORKS editions.

I also lettered the MARVELMAN sample pages submitted to MARVEL U.S. when they were considering acquiring the character, which - as we all now know - they DID.

Supplied comic strips, cartoons and illustrated advertisements for local business campaigns and newspaper publication on a professional basis since the age of 16. Did my first paid art job for publication at 14 or 15 for Lanarkshire Education Board.

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